Before media is uploaded into the Netflix ecosystem there are requirements and best practices that you will want to adhere to when it comes to checksumming your media, folder structure, and which hard drives to use. By adhering to these guidelines, you can ensure a smoother and more efficient upload process.
Should you have any questions about data management best practices, you can find a complete guide here.
Table of Contents
Media Hash List (MHL) Requirements
Camera & Sound Roll Uniqueness
Hard Drive Best Practices
When offloading your media from your camera and sound cards to a transportation drive, following these best practices will ensure a seamless upload experience:
- Drive Selection: Netflix recommends using SSD or NVMe drives due to their higher random read speeds and ability to mitigate network throttling. Avoid using mechanical drives or RAID arrays as transportation drives.
- Operating System Consistency: Changing operating systems can create hidden system files, which may cause issues during verification and inspection. Note that the Netflix Footage Ingest Application is designed for macOS. Avoid switching operating systems during the offloading process. Uploading from the drive coming from set is a good way to avoid the creation of these hidden files.
Backing-up Footage On Set
When making a backup of original camera and audio files we recommend using professional data management software that will ensure your data is transferred in a safe way by checking the resulting copy against the original media with checksum verification. Additionally, when configured accordingly, these applications will produce a media hash list (MHL) at the end of the copy that documents the resulting checksums, acting as a receipt, or a ‘seal’ of the copied directory. Having an MHL accompanying every roll means that the entire directory was verified after being copied.
Examples of software that generate MHL manifests that meet the requirements of Netflix’s Footage Ingest tool include: Pomfort Silverstack, Hedge Offshoot, Imagine Products Shotput Pro, and Yoyotta.
In order to properly identify camera and sound rolls, the Netflix Footage Ingest Application requires that every roll have an MHL at the root of the copied directory.
Figure A
Since the MHL includes a list of checksums produced at the time of the original offload of the media, the Netflix Footage Ingest application also uses the MHL to verify the contents of the transfer drive against those original hashes. This way Content Hub can ensure that the offloaded directory remains unchanged from the original offload, enabling what we call Chain of Custody (Production Assets: Data Management).
Media Hash List (MHL) Requirements
Each camera or sound roll must be offloaded from the source media using an MHL (Media Hash List) to ensure all data has been successfully transferred and verified. Before you begin your offload please ensure that you are following the below best practices:
- Netflix supports either ASC MHL or MHL(v1) media hash list formats. ASC MHL is preferred due to its significant improvements over the original specification.
- Netflix supports checksum MD5 or xxhash64BE checksum formats. xxhash64BE is preferred as transfer speeds are significantly higher when creating the hashes
- In order for the Netflix Footage Ingest application to properly identify a directory as a “roll”, the MHL must be contained inside the roll folder
- Once an MHL is created for a roll, consider the roll “sealed” on the destination drive and avoid any further modifications to the files or folder structure.
Camera Roll Containing Folder Requirements
To ensure the Netflix Footage Ingest application can identify and upload your camera rolls correctly, they need to be isolated inside a containing folder. This folder can contain one or multiple camera rolls, but should not contain other media such as sound rolls or supporting files.
Figure B
Sound Roll Containing Folder Requirements
Similar to camera rolls, to ensure the Netflix Footage Ingest application can identify and upload your sound rolls correctly they need to be isolated inside a containing folder. This folder can contain one or multiple sound rolls, but should not contain other media such as camera rolls or supporting files.
Figure C
Camera & Sound Roll Uniqueness
Ensure all camera and sound rolls have a unique folder name so that we identify them as discrete assets. This will make sure that media is tagged properly and improves overall asset library performance and experience.
Figure D
Tagging your Upload Properly
The Netflix Footage Ingest application is designed to handle one shoot day at a time. All metadata tags applied within the application will be uniformly applied to all media uploaded during that session. For optimal tagging and organization, we recommend uploading footage by day, unit, and block.
Figure E
Pre Upload Validations
Please note if your upload exceeds 100 rolls and a data size of 10TB the Netflix Footage Ingest application will block you from proceeding with your upload.
If your upload exceeds any of these limits please split your upload into multiple separate uploads, ensuring not to split any rolls.
Figure F
Warnings
No Camera or Sound Rolls
If the Netflix Footage Ingest application does not find any camera or sound rolls in your director you will be warned. Please, check your folder directory to ensure MHLs are correctly placed in the directory and select Re-Scan to rescan your directory.
Figure G
Illegal characters
If the Netflix Footage Ingest application detects illegal characters in your folder structure you will be warned. Please remove these characters before uploading. Should you wish to use a folder naming convention, you can find the guidelines here.
- Illegal characters: @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) ` ; : < > ? , [ ] { } / \ ' ” | ~
Figure H
Multiple Legacy MHLs per Roll
If the Netflix Footage Ingest application detects multiple legacy MHLs in a roll you will be warned and will not be able to proceed with your upload. Please, check each roll to ensure that there is only one MHLs per roll and then select Re-Scan to rescan your directory.
Figure I